Dear Mustachians,
I'm a total newbie with the following situation: Your collective wisdom much appreciated!
I've got $46,750 in Canadian dollar student loans (part of which is a student line of credit through a credit union). I've also got about $81K Canadian in the bank thanks to an inheritance.
I would like to consolidate all this debt into one as-low-interest-as-possible package that is automatically paid by 4% off a potential TFSA/RRSP account ( I can put 24K into RRSP and 51K into TFSA thanks to accumulated credits I've never used). I don't currently have employment in Canada (I live in Germany). I have terrible credit in the US (where I have a bunch of other nasty student loans), and not sure what kind of credit I have in Canada. I would hope to use the investment account as collateral.
Anyone have a sense of how this might be possible and where I should go? From the old blog posts (Mr. Frugal Toque I and II) I see TD had best rates, but would there be any way to do this with a Questrade account or would it have to be linked through a bank?
Or perhaps there is an entirely different way to think about the situation?
I have a similar situation but on larger scale with my US student loans. I've got some US $ inheritance + mega student loans. I need some strategies to work with both situations but trying to deal with one at a time...
Thanks much for thoughts!
Best,
O.